Chapter 70

Seventy Investigation

In the bathroom, after drinking an entire cup of pale red liquid, Brandon placed the cup on the washstand, supported himself with his hands on the mirror, and began to breathe heavily. As the effects of the drug he had taken gradually took hold, Brandon’s breathing became more controlled and eventually returned to normal.

Gradually lifting his head, Brandon looked at himself in the mirror. The distortion in his expression had dissipated, and everything was back to how it was before.

“Praise the bl**d Cup…”

Muttering softly, Brandon stood in front of the washstand and began tidying up the traces left behind. After cleaning up, he wiped the wet sleeve and then took out the test tube containing the red powder to examine it closely.

On the test tube, there were faint engravings of symbols and crescents, indicating that the tube possessed some secretive effect from “The Shadow,” albeit very weak.

‘Sigh… If the number of Radiance Lamps continues to increase like this, it won’t be long before they can’t be avoided. James must have noticed something by now. I need to report back tonight…’

With these thoughts, Brandon put away the test tube with the powder and then turned the door handle, exiting the bathroom.

He slowly made his way back to his workplace. Along the way, he deliberately avoided areas with abundant Radiance Lamp lights. Soon enough, Brandon returned to his seat.

‘Now I just need to wait for the end of my shift…’

As time passed, the An Yin Bureau finally reached the end of their workday. Except for the Search Hunters still active in the city, most administrative staff, including Brandon, could leave.

After securing his desk, Brandon stood up and chose one of the many hidden exits. After climbing a flight of stairs, he arrived at a closed door. Opening it, he exited from a secluded storage room on the first floor of a building next to the Cedar Shirt Building.

Like many others heading home after work, Brandon, dressed casually, stepped out of the building. As night fell, he walked down the street, planning to find a carriage to take him home.

Brandon had barely taken two steps when a scruffy stray black dog emerged from the crowd. It sniffed around and approached Brandon, eventually catching his scent near his pant leg and sniffing upward along it.

Noticing the movement below, Brandon frowned and looked down, meeting the gaze of the stray dog looking up at him. For a moment, man and dog locked eyes.

“Where did this dog come from? Get lost!”

Seeing the dirty black dog, Brandon kicked at it, but the dog skillfully dodged his foot and darted away into the crowd.

Ignoring the fleeing dog, Brandon walked to the side of the road and waved after waiting ten minutes or so, stopping a carriage. He then got inside.

Riding in the carriage, Brandon continued toward Igewent Street. Above him, a crow perched on the carriage.

…

A few dozen meters behind the carriage Brandon rode in, another carriage was also on its way. The coachman, wearing a top hat and having a pale, gloomy face, drove the carriage. Inside, the white-haired girl in a black dress sat calmly, a slight smile on her lips.

“I’ve finally found you… the addict of ‘The Cup’…”

Sitting in the carriage, Dorothy smiled as she spoke. She had finally pinpointed the traitor within the An Yin Bureau in Igewent.

From early on, Dorothy had been pondering how the Holy Communion managed to place a mole inside the An Yin Bureau. Logically, such an organization would not openly recruit and would likely have strict vetting processes, making it difficult to infiltrate through regular channels. Moreover, the members of the “Cup” society seemed somewhat unstable, making it unlikely they could train spies effectively. Additionally, spies inserted through recruitment were usually low-level operatives, unable to access crucial information.

However, during the Burton case, the spy responded quickly, immediately alerting the Holy Communion, indicating their position was high enough to gather important intelligence.

Through these deductions, Dorothy ruled out the possibility of the Holy Communion carefully training a spy and inserting them through formal recruitment. This left only one method:

Corruption.

Yes, in Dorothy’s view, the Holy Communion must have known about a member of the An Yin Bureau through some opportunity and corrupted them. She had witnessed the methods used by the “Cup” society—using both “Poison Recognition” and “Cup” drugs, which could ensnare someone unsuspectingly, leaving no defense.

Once corrupted, the An Yin Bureau member would be fully under the control of the Holy Communion. With the threat of cutting off “Cup” supplies, the corrupted member would obediently work for the Holy Communion, serving as their eyes and ears within the bureau.

Dorothy understood that the Holy Communion aimed to corrupt Gregor through her. Given the significant resources and effort invested, they must have foreseen substantial benefits from this plan. Their confidence in this plan’s success likely stemmed from previous successful cases.

With this clarity, Dorothy’s approach to catching the mole became clearer, and she developed a plan. Her first step was to obtain “Cup” drugs.

First, Dorothy disguised herself as corrupted and obtained “Cup” drugs from Colif. Relying on “Stone” drugs to counteract the poison, she determined the addictive strength of “Cup.” The results showed that after three hours, her body experienced intense cravings after her first use. Long-term users would become even more dependent, with shorter cycles.

Given that a workday far exceeded three hours, it meant the corrupted mole within the An Yin Bureau would inevitably experience cravings during working hours. Thus, they would carry “Cup” drugs to secretly alleviate their addiction.

Knowing the mole carried the drugs, the next steps were straightforward. Dorothy had spent days mapping out the hidden exits of the An Yin Bureau. By setting up animal puppets at strategic locations near gathering points, she could use the powerful sense of smell in dogs to search for “Cup” drug scents during the bureau’s peak times. The “Cup” drugs provided by Colif served as the sample for this purpose.

In essence, Dorothy’s operation relied on obtaining “Cup” drugs from Colif. The risk she took and the performance she put on with Colif were not merely for the sake of the secret transmission.

Animal puppets required precise control, which could be fully utilized with Dorothy’s enlightenment spiritual ability. Prior to this, she could only partially control them. Dorothy had also memorized the appearances of almost all An Yin Bureau members using her keen memory, ensuring she wouldn’t miss anyone.

Thus, Dorothy employed various means to identify the mole planted by the Crimson Eucharist in the An Yin Bureau in Igewent. Now, she needed to leverage this breakthrough to gather more intelligence.